Lack of welfare schemes, BSF curbs force West Bengal farmers to migrate far away

Counteview Desk
In a representation to the National Human Rights Commission chairperson, a senior West Bengal based activist has complained that villagers living near the border with Bangladesh are forced to migrate to as far away as Mumbai and Kerala because of lack of government sensitivity towards their welfare in original villages.
Giving specific instances, Kirity Roy, secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), said, if the Border Security Force (BSF) had not put any restriction on agricultural activities, and if villages had properly implemented welfare schemes, these people would never migrate to other States.

Text:

I want to attract your immediate attention to the inhumane condition of the migrated workers of Gobra village, Swarupnagar Block in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal to seek your urgent intervention to protect the rights of these people.
Gobra is a village situated near the Indo-Bangladesh Border where the border fencing is about 500 meters inland. In our fact-finding we have found that the village lacks basic facilities such as basic health facilities, Ration shops, proper road network etc. The land in the village is fertile, but, in the lands which are situated beyond the fencing, the villagers cannot cultivate due to BSF restrictions. The primary profession of the villagers is agricultural work, but the villagers don't recover sufficient income from this profession. The works under MGNREGA are in a terrible state, and moreover everybody in the village doesn’t possess a job card under the scheme. The people who have job cards, find jobs for around 20-40 days a year. This horrendous situation forces the villagers to undertake unsafe migration to the other parts of the country.
The situation under which the villagers are undertaking migration is extremely unsafe. Nor the local panchayat or the administration keep any record related to it, neither are they provided with a Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) card. During their stay out-station they are forced to live in slum-like and unhealthy situations where basic sanitation, clean and regular water supply is lacking. Due to the absence of data, the safety and security of their life and livelihood are always at risk.
The daily wages they earn vary, in Mumbai it is between Rs 350-500, and in Kerala it is between Rs 500-800, as there are no general guidelines about the wage amount.
The following is the list of the villagers of Gobra who migrated to the different states:

The Inter-State Migrant Workmen Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, 1979 (ISMW) Act provides that the labor contractors recruiting migrants are required to: (i) be licensed, (ii) register migrant workers with the government authorities, and (iii) arrange for the worker to be issued passbook recording their identity. Guidelines regarding wages and protections (including accommodation, free medical facilities, and protective clothing) to be provided by the labor contractor are also outlined in the law. In this case the workers don’t even have BOCW cards. Nor do they get any legal safety net from various violations.
In our fact finding related to this complaint, we have found that at least two of these workers are minors. They are living in the lack of all sorts of recreational activities and chances to attain quality education. At the same time, the conditions they are living in violates several Articles of Convention on the Rights of the Child, to be named, Articles 27, 28 and 32. The protection of children is of utmost importance for anybody sworn to protect human rights. Thus, giving them a proper childhood must be taken care of by the State at any cost.

Two of the migrants

If these villagers get proper agricultural support, if BSF does not put any restriction on the agricultural activities, and if the villages have proper implementation of the welfare schemes, these people would never migrate to other states. BSF’s intervention in the workings of the farmers, making arbitrary rules not to cultivate any profitable crops within 200 meter distance from the border fencing paralyzes the villagers economically.

This incident also violates Articles 2, 12, 13 and 16 of the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) in whose favor the Government of India voted. When these villagers migrate to different states for earning, they are subjected to ill treatment which is also in violation of the provision of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. Where will these people go to run their lives better? ‘Life’ in Article 21 of the Constitution is not merely the physical act of breathing. It is much wider, including the right to live with human dignity and the right to livelihood. Due to such de facto forced migration these people are losing this very right.

Therefore I request your urgent intervention in this case to help these villagers find respite and humane life. On this note, I am putting forth the following demands of the villagers:

BSF should not put any restriction on the cultivation of profitable crops in the village Gobra.
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families Adopted by General Assembly resolution 45/158 of 18 December 1990, must be followed to letters.
Security and safety of these migrant workers must be ensured, and legal safeguards such as ISMW-1979 must be implemented properly.
Ensure the implementation of government welfare schemes such as MGNREGA at Gobra.
The line departments of government and respective Panchayat / Municipality must maintain a detailed register of the migrant labourers (outgoing and incoming) and provide them with a government welfare scheme when they are out-station.
The government must ensure basic facilities such as proper housing, healthcare etc. for the migrants at their work-stations.
Government must implement schemes to provide the migrants with rations in the non-home States.
There must be government monitoring to protect the migrants from the ill-treatment of the contractor.

Comments

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

The curious case of multiple entries of a female voter of Maharashtra: What ECI's online voter records reveal

By Venkatesh Nayak* Cyberspace is agog with data, names and documents which question the reliability of the electoral rolls prepared by the electoral bureaucracy in Maharashtra prior to the General Elections conducted in 2024. One such example of deep dive probing has brought to the surface, the name of one female voter in the 132-Nalasopara (Gen) Vidhan Sabha Constituency in Maharashtra. Nalasopara is part of the Palghar (ST) Lok Sabha constituency. This media report claims that this individual's name figures multiple times in the voter list of the same constituency.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi* This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman* Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Morbi’s ceramic workers face silicosis epidemic, 92% denied legal health benefits: PTRC study

By Rajiv Shah A new study by the Gujarat-based health rights organisation, Peoples Training and Research Centre (PTRC), warns that most workers in Morbi district’s ceramic industry—which produces 90% of India’s ceramic output—are at high risk of contracting silicosis, a deadly occupational disease.

Search This Blog